Beauty Podcast Perfection-Three of the Best

Keeping up with on-trend beauty and gleaning insight about the beauty industry has become so much easier with a podcast. But before you sigh, read on for my top three picks that are worthy of a listen, whether you’re on your daily commute, on an aeroplane or at your desk. All are hosted by savvy, witty women who have cut their teeth in various aspects of the beauty industry. Drawing from their connections and real-time experience, they have each designed podcasts that score well on must-listen lists.

The Emma Guns Show

Emma Gunavardhana or Emma G, has more than ten years of journalism and beauty industry experience to her credit. She has worked with some of the biggest names in the beauty industry and has now decided to use her accrued years of experience to host a podcast featuring a roster of glittery names.

In each podcast, she sits with her respective guest to delve deep inside how they started in the industry, explores some of their experiences, and examines the ways in which they remain inspired by and attuned to changes on the ground. Naturally, she zeroes in on their favourite products and treatments and she also delves a bit into their personal lives, as a way to mine their techniques for satisfying the demands of work and home.

Emma G is a hilarious host, earnest, inquisitive and sincere without being off-putting or invasive. She is the woman you want to strike up a conversation with if you find yourself at an event where everyone seems to know everyone, except you. With her podcast, you’ll become aware of some of what it takes to claw forward in an industry that is old, yet still evolving. You’ll realise that people in the spotlight face pressures like the rest of us and quite likely, you’ll learn that in order to reap dividends, you should be prepared to bring your hunger and sweat to fire up that engine called success.

I don’t recall how I came across Fat Mascara, a beauty podcast hosted by Jennifer Goldstein and Jessica Matlin, both established writers and consultants in the beauty world. Armed with beauty industry secrets and myths, insights and anecdotes, they are the ‘Lucy and Ethel’ of the beauty podcast galaxy.

Listening to them each week, I laugh my head off while learning about what is on the horizon in beauty or hearing about beauty brand events or trips, scattered with anecdotes about what may or may not have occurred. It’s almost like being in a bistro and overhearing a juicy conversation that you can’t help but listen to. Most episodes also feature a special guest, whether it’s a well-known brand founder or a makeup artist whose work is causing happy tremors in the industry. If I had to choose my favourite episode thus far, it would be episode 91 with Frédéric Malle, perfume publisher extraordinaire.

When I envision the listening audience of Fat Mascara, I think of the on-trend set who are versed in ordering Aperol Spritzers and French 75 Punch, who go home to bathroom cabinets heaving with products from the sustainable school of beauty. But not all. Whether you’re a Millenial, the parent of one, a yummy mummy or a yoga/barre/cross-fit darling, this podcast is your beauty sound horn. Make sure you listen to the expertly mixed closing soundbite of each episode, as I assure you it will claim a position in your vocabulary.

Entrepreneur, Sales and Marketing Wizard, YouTube Darling and all around powerhouse Erika Vieira, has cornered the beauty podcast arena by mainly focusing her program on YouTube beauty vloggers. Whether she’s chatting with the next vlogger to do a collab with a beauty brand or vloggers who already have a few in their portfolio, through her guests Erika leads her listeners to conjure the grit, tenacity and luck needed to boast a healthy subscription count on YouTube.

She is a mix of spunky host and chatty best girlfriend who is always on the pulse of what’s shiny and new. Through her interviews, Erika lets the uninitiated know that being a vlogger takes work and that there’s more to a YouTube video than firing up your phone and shooting on a whim. Beauty and the Vlog is an excellent tool for anyone interested in beauty and lifestyle vlogging, as it can be used as a real-time guide. For the rest of us, it’s exciting and informative listening.